BHUBANESWAR: Principal bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) at New Delhi has asked Odisha and West Bengal governments to demarcate the boundaries for regulating grant of sand mining lease within three months and constitute an Oversight Authority to prevent illegal and unscientific sand mining.
Disposing a petition filed by civil society activist Sudarsan Das, a four-member bench comprising NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, judicial members Justice Jawad Rahim, Justice SP Wangdi and expert member Nagin Nanda ordered that no mining lease of minor minerals will be given till the demarcation is complete.
“Chief secretaries of both the States will constitute a team of three officers each within two weeks and they would hold their first meeting within one month to decide on demarcation. All existing mining operations will remain suspended till the work is completed,” the 23-page order stated.
They will also get a detailed restoration plan prepared for Subarnarekha river and its bed by a committee of experts from independent institutions including Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Dhanbad-based Indian School of Mines and State Pollution Control Boards, within one month.The expert committee will carry out a detailed study and submit restoration plan within three months and get the assessment done through Dehradun-based Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education on the damage to ecology and inhabitants.
Apart from instituting appropriate criminal proceedings against those carrying out illegal mining, exemplary penalty will be imposed by the district magistrates concerned within three months to cover the cost of restoration of environment and compensate the victims.
Stating that the illegalities are glaring, the NGT directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to finalise mining surveillance system in consultation with ISRO, issue SOP to evaluate loss to ecology and recover the cost of restoration from legal or illegal miners, set up a dedicated institutional mechanism for effective monitoring of sand and gravel mining within two months.
There will be an independent environmental audit by a three-member committee nominated by District Magistrate, at least once in a year and its report will be placed in public domain, the order stated.
The green panel ordered that former judge of Jharkhand High Court Justice RK Merathia will act as Oversight Authority to execute the directions in next two weeks.
Earlier, alleging that large scale illegal and unscientific mining is directly impacting the ecology of Subarnarekha, Das had moved National Green Tribunal.